.jeri.

Not 9/11, 451!

When I was a kid, my family was watching Fahrenheit 451 on tv. All I can remember from that moment on was a woman who burned with her books. It scared me and kept me from watching or reading anything Fahrenheit 451 for several years. In fact, I just gave in and read the book this past weekend.

For those who live under a rock, this is a book in which a futuristic society burns all books. A "fireman" is no longer a protector against fires, but a firestarter. One of the firemen, Montag, manages to steal a few books from the homes he sets fire to, and starts to read them. His life begins to change as he discovers the history behind books and why they are burned, and as his relationship with his wife is teetering on the edge of either death or divorce, since her entire life revolves around the interactive TV walls of her living room.

Something really grabbed me when I read this book. Maybe it's the fact that I had been reading so many short Grimm's Fairytales (I'm only 250 out of 600 pages in) that it felt good to get into depth with a character again, or maybe because it raised so many still-relevant points about society and literature. Whatever it was, this book made me want to pick up a million books, to let them offend me, to let them teach me, or challenge me.

I'll have to admit that this is the first book I've read by an author who's still alive. I always thought it was funny that one Buchanan in the English Dept always made it a policy to never read dead authors. I was always his opposite. Not that this book is very recent, but it made me laugh to think about. I think a lot of modern authors write a lot without necessarily saying anything. At first, this book irritated me because it had that similie-filled wordiness that drives me crazy, but once it got rolling, I got involved and enjoyed his writing style.

Overall, I enjoyed it quite a bit more than I expected and look forward to reading more of Bradbury's work.

Posted by wendytime at June 29, 2004 02:31 PM | TrackBack